SUPERNATURAL
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SUPERNATURAL
gratuitously produced by God for the purpose of
raising the rational creature above its native sphere
to a God-like life and destiny. The meaning of the
phrase fluctuates with that of its antithesis, the natu-
ral order. Those who conceive the latter as the world
of material beings to the exclusion of immaterial
entities, or as the necessary mechanism of cause and
effect to the exclusion of the free agency of the will,
or again as the inherent forces of the universe to the
exclusion of the extrinsic concurrence of God, quite
consistently call supernatural all spiritual facts or
voluntary determinations or Divine operations.
There is no objection to that way of speaking pro-
vided the a.ssertion of the supernatural so under-
stood be not made, by a fallacious transference of
meaning, to screen the negation of the supernatural
as defined above. Catholic theologians sometimes
call supernatural the miraculous way in which cer-
tain effects, in themselves natural, are produced,
or certain endowments (like man's immunity from
death, suffering, passion, and ignorance) that bring
the lower class up to the higher though always
within the limits of the created, but they are careful
in qualifjing the former ;us accidentally supernatural
(sitpemaiurale per acckiens) and the latter as rela-
tively supernatural i prce.ternaturale) . For a concept
of the substantially and absolutely supernatural, they
start from a comprehensive view of the natural order
taken, in its amplest acceptation, for the aggregate of
all created entities and powers, including the highest
natiu-al endowments of which the rational creature is
capable, and even such Divine operations as are de-
manded by the effective carrj-ing out of the cosmic
order. The supernatural order is then more than a
miraculous way of producing natural effects, or a not ion
of relative superiority within the created world, or the
necessary concurrence of God in the universe; it is an
effect or series of effects substantially and absolutely
above all nature and, as such, calls for an exceptional
intervention and gratuitous bestowal of God and
rises in a manner to the Divine order, the only one
that transcends the whole created world. Although
some theologians do not consider impossible the ele-
vation of the irrational creature to the Divine order,
v. g., by way of personal union, nevertheless it stands
to reason that such an exalted privilege should be
reserved for the rational creature capable of knowl-
edge and love. It is obvious also that this uplifting
of the rational creature to the supernatural order
cannot be by way of absorption of the created into
the Divine or of fusion of both into a sort of monis-
tic identity, but only by way of union or participa-
tion, the two terms remaining perfectly distinct.
Not being an a priori conception but a positive fact, the supernatural order can only be known through Divine revelation properly supported by such Divuie evidences as miracle, prophecy, etc. Revelation and its evidences are called extrin.sic and auxiliary supernatural, the elevation itself retain- ing the name of intrinsic or, according to some, the- ological supernal lu-al. There are three principal instances of such elevation: the hypostatic union or the assumption of the Sacred Humanity of Christ into the personal dignity of the Son of God; the calling of the faithful angels to the beatific vision whereby they see always the face of the Father who is in heaven (Matt., xviii, 10), and the elevation of man to the state of grace here and glory hereafter. The hj'postatic union and the angelic supernatural are both closely connected with our own elevation. From St. John (i, 12-14) we know that the hypo- static union is the ideal and instrument of it, and St. Paul decl.ares that the angels are "all ministering spirits, pent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritancf' of salvation" (Hel)., i, 14). Leav- ing for separate tre.-itment the auxiliary supernatural (see Revelatio-n; Miracle; Prophecy), the hjTJO- XIV.— 22
static union (see IncariVation), and the angels' ele-
vation (see Angels), this article deals with the
supernatural order in man both in its history and
analysis.
Briefly, the history is this: From the beginning, man was raised, far above the claims of his nature, to a life which made him, even here below, the adopted child of God, and to a destiny which entitled him to the beatific vision and love of God in heaven. To these strictly sui)ernatural gifts by which man was truly made partaker of the Divine nature (II Pet., i, 4) were added preternatural endowments, that is immunity from ignorance, passion, suffering and death, which left him "little lower than the angels" (Ps. viii, 6; Hebr., ii 7). Through their own fault, our first parents forfeited for themselves and their race both the God-like life and destiny and the angel- like endowments. In His mercy God promised a Redeemer who, heralded by ages of prophecy, came in the fulness of time in the person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. By His Incarnation, labours, passion, and death, Jesus Christ restored mankind to its former Divine sonship and heavenly inheritance, if not to its quasi-angelic prerogatives, the virtue of Redemption being applied to us through the joint ministrations of the inner Spirit and of the visible Church, in the form of actual helps, habitual sanctity, and the power of meriting Heaven.
An analysis of the supernatural order, barely in- augurated by the Fathers, but brought to a point of great perfection by the Schoolmen and post-Triden- tine theologians, discloses the various elements that make up order, that is an end, means, and laws The end is man's destination to see God face to face and to love Him correspondingly. If, as will be shown, the intuitive vision of God is our true destiny and moreover transcends our highest natural powers, then we must be given means capable of attaining that end, that is supernatural. Those means can be no other than our own actions, but invested with a higher power that makes them meritorious of Heaven. Grace, both actual and habitual, is the source of that meriting power: while habitual grace, with its train of infused virtues or faculties raises our mode of being and operating to a sphere which is God's own, actual grace spurs us on to justification and, once we stand justified, sets in motion our super- natural powers causing them to yield good and meri- torious works. In the supernatural order, as in all others, there are also specific laws. The work of man's sanctification depends in a manner on the general laws of the universe and most certainly upon the carrying out of all the moral precepts WTitten in our hearts. Besides these laws, which Christ came not to abolish, there are pasitive or freely established enactments ranging all the way from the Divinely appointed conditions of salvation to the revealed obligations and even the rules governing our growth in holiness. Glory and grace, being (he central features of the supernatural order, special reference will be made to them both in the exposition of errors and the establishment of the Catholic doctrine.
I. Khrors, — The theories denying or belittling the supernatural order may be classified from the stand- point of both their historical appearance and logical sequence, into three groups according as they view the supernatural (1) in our present dr fnr/n condition, (2) in the original status of man, (3) in its po.ssibility and evidences.
To the first group belong Pelagianism and Semi- pelagianism. Influenced, no doubt, by the Stoic ideal and their own ascetic performances, the Pela- gians of the fifth century so magnified the capacity of human nature jls to pronounce natural to it both the beatific vision :inii the human acts by which it is merited. They were condemned by the Councils of Mileve and Carthage, 418. Less daring, the Semi-
